The map above shows the number of new COVID-19 cases for the week of February 19 to 25, 2021. (Photo supplied by BC Centre for Disease Control.)
B.C.’s Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry told the province that the world will be a better place in a few months.
"Maybe I'm too optimistic, but we're going to be in our post-pandemic world by the summer, if things continue to go the way that we want them to," Dr. Henry said.
The same day, in a somewhat grim article, news agency Reuters reported that global scientists’ optimism – fed by the efficacy of vaccines – is waning due to the new variants' ability to evade immunity. Some are starting to believe COVID-19 will become endemic and will cause deaths for years to come.
Those two extremes encapsulate the state of the pandemic. We’re hopeful, but extremely wary of the variants of concern, that show the virus is a wily actor, with an ability to evade both natural immunity and that conferred by vaccines.
Thursday, Dr. Henry reported 46 new COVID-19 cases caused by variants of concern. That’s up from 18 the day before and B.C.'s new total of 246 has more than doubled from last week’s total of 120. Dr. Henry also reported two deaths that are known to have been from variant cases.
Meanwhile, B.C. plans to immunize 400,000 people between March to April, including seniors and others living in independent living, home care support clients and staff, Indigenous people older than age 65, and seniors older than 80.
B.C. Premier John Horgan is still cautious.
“Although there is light at the end of the tunnel, we are far from out of this. We have months to go,” Horgan said. “The challenges we’ve endured over the past year have been profound, but the challenges still to come remain equally profound.”
He reminded everyone that B.C. is not in control of vaccine supply.
“We are dependent on offshore supplies of vaccine to meet our targets. This is a global pandemic. This is a scarce commodity that is in high demand in every corner of the planet.”
Second vaccine doses in B.C. will be spaced out by four months, Dr. Henry announced.
“This gives us a very important and very real benefit. That means we can move everybody up the list and more people can be protected sooner,” she said.
At first, B.C.’s Provincial Health Officer was criticized for spacing out vaccinations by four months, but now the National Advisory Council on Immunization and Canada’s Council of Chief Medical Officers of Health have said it’s a valid approach.
Canada approved the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is not recommended for adults older than age 65. This vaccine can be stored in a regular refrigerator, which makes it more flexible.
“We do believe that that we will start to target essential workers – our first responders – and our key essential workers who are not able to work from home,” Dr. Henry said.
The vaccine is up to 90-per-cent effective, three weeks after just one dose, Dr. Henry said, calling it “amazing news.”
She said she is thinking about when it might be possible to allow more visitors into long-term care homes.
Here’s the rest of the news:
- COVID-19 long haulers are asking that people who’ve had COVID-19 more than two weeks ago no longer be called “recovered.” Instead, they say they should be called “no longer infectious,” the Vancouver Sun reports.
- Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are being tested in children between 12 and 18 years old, the Vancouver Sun reports. If the vaccines prove effective and safe, children may be able to begin vaccination in the fall.
- Metro Vancouver has created an online tool to track the amount of COVID-19 virus in the region’s wastewater. Its numbers are a few weeks behind, but perhaps it will catch up soon.
- P.1, the variant first seen in Brazil, is highly infectious and can even infect people who have already had COVID-19, Reuters reports.
- Several local churches are taking the B.C. government to court over a ban on in-person religious ceremonies. During a hearing this week, the judge questioned why Dr. Henry has not supplied an affidavit in the case to explain her thinking, saying that could give Dr. Henry has “absolute authority” with no transparency, the Vancouver Sun reported.
- In January 2021, 165 people in British Columbia died from suspected drug overdoses, the BC Coroners Service reported this week. That’s the largest number of lives ever lost in a single month due to illicit drugs. To put that into perspective, about 300 people died from COVID-19 that same month. However, in all, about 1,355 people have died from COVID-19 in B.C., while 1,716 died of illicit drug overdoses in 2020 alone. “We're particularly concerned about the toxicity of the drugs detected in many of the deaths recorded in January,” B.C.’s chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said. "The findings suggest that the already unstable drug supply in B.C. is becoming even deadlier, underscoring the urgent need for supervised consumption options, prescribing for safe supply, and accessible treatment and recovery services.”
I’m definitely ready for good news. If not a post-pandemic world, at least a slow-down, a reprieve, over summer will be most welcome.
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